On May 22, 2020, LEGO A/S (“LEGO”) filed a complaint in Connecticut Federal Court against Florida based Laser Pegs Ventures LLC (“Laser Pegs”) for allegedly infringing its copyrights and trademarks.

In its complaint, LEGO says Laser Pegs’ lighted construction toy products are confusingly, strikingly and substantially similar to the overall look and feel of the LEGO® Minifigure figurine.

LEGO’S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

LEGO introduced the Minifigure figurine in 1978 and it has since developed into an iconic toy recognized throughout the world. LEGO owns a number of copyrights registered with the US Copyright Office, including two (VA0000655104 and VA0000655230) protecting the 3D sculpture and derivative works of the Minifigure figurine. In addition to the copyright registrations, LEGO also has a registered trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office (Reg. #4,903,968) of its iconic product design:

LASER PEG’S PRODUCTS

According to the complaint, LEGO claims that Laser Pegs has been selling figurines that are confusingly, strikingly and substantially similar to the overall look and feel of the LEGO Minifigure figurine. A comparison of the two are below, with LEGO’s on the left and Laser Pegs’ on the right:

In addition to the figurines, LEGO claims that Laser Pegs is also using its construction bricks as source identifiers, leading to confusion with the LEGO bricks. Among its trademark portfolio, LEGO has registered trademarks for the cylindrical surface and brick design as seen below:

Based on its trademark registrations and continuous use of the mark, LEGO alleges that Laser Pegs packaging consisting of a four stud construction bricks design, shown below, is confusingly similar to LEGO’s trademarks

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS:

As you can see, there are both copyright and trademark issues being dealt with in this complaint. Copyright protection is available for original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible form, whether published or unpublished. A copyright holder can prevent others from copying, performing or otherwise use the work without consent.

A trademark, on the other hand, is a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of any of those elements, which identifies the source of a product or service. Unique names, logos, slogans, sounds, packaging can all be granted a trademark registration by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) if they act as source identifiers.